I take a swig, hoping it’ll help. Blade woke me at 5:00 a.m. to inform me the security system at Edge’s club, the Dolly, was taken out last night. My clothes were still on and a burned-out cigarette was in my hand.
“So, once again, we have no proof that these are the same assholes.” Frosty swivels in his chair to look at Edge and me.
“Christ, Frosty.” Taking another swig of Jack, I pass it to Edge.
“No, I need to stay sharp in case Dolly needs me.” He looks worried. I can’t tell if it’s because someone tampered with the security at his club, or that his wife Dolly is five months pregnant and her emotions are all over the place. Which sucks for Edge since Dolly is already drama.
Someone bangs on the door and we turn to see Blade and David through the camera. Edge buzzes them in.
Blade snarls and I hand him the bottle of Jack. “I’m two seconds from losing my shit, Frosty.” He turns to him as he brings the bottle to his lips. “I need you to tell me you know who’s fucking with us.”
Frosty rubs his hands up and down his face, looking like shit. He probably hasn’t slept yet since he usually stays up all night, and we needed him in the daytime to handle this mess. “I don’t. But I do think it’s the same guys.” He drops his hands and sighs as he turns to queue up the footage again.
I throw myself into a chair and prop my feet on the black conference table. “Blade, it’s Benny. It has to be. Quite frankly, I think he’s in with the Russians.” I look at him as he takes another swig and reaches for my pack of cigarettes.
“I was up until one a.m. with Bullseye and it’s not coming from them.” I lean my head back and close my tired eyes for a second. The exhaust and dirt from the road and smoking my mind stupid last night are all catching up. Big violet eyes blink at me.
What the fuck?
I sit up, making an instant decision.
After all this settles, I’m getting her a studio. I’ll stop by to fuck her when I feel like it. But we’re not living together. She gets free rent and I get her.
I reach for the pack, which Blade tossed back on the table, and watch all my brothers. They’re worried. I tried to warn them we needed to be on this. I’ve been saying for years we’re getting soft in our old age. The more money we get, the more kids we have, the weaker we become.
Not killing Benny when we had the chance was a mistake. It was the first time Blade let his personal life dictate the club’s business. I get it. Eve’s his woman and Benny’s her brother, but now we’re dealing with his mess. Again, that unease fills me. I shake it aside, focusing on Benny.
He’s a greedy fuck. He should have taken all his money and whatever else he’s managed to steal and slunk away. But crazy people never do what they should do.
The room crackles with emotions. None of the guys want this. All of them are thinking about their families and lives.
It’s why Blade got out of selling drugs, slowly moving all of the businesses to legit, trying to get the club back to riding bikes and being a family. But we’re too rich and have too much power for that ever to truly happen.
Someone’s always gonna want to be the king, and either you kill or be killed.
Power.
The mental ability to command and outsmart your opponent. I love it, live by it.
But not tonight.
Tonight, I’ll give in to my obsession.
My cock is hard at the thought of her and I adjust myself. I need to get Antoinette, bring her home and fuck her, smoke some weed, and sleep for hours, in that order.
“I’m going home. Call if you need me.” I rise and grab my keys. David looks up from his phone and Blade turns away from the monitor.
“Wait, Axel, I need to talk to you for a second.” Blade takes a deep drag off the cigarette. “It’s about Antoinette.”
“Yeah?” My eyes narrow because I know what’s coming. I’ve felt it since I walked in here.
“We need to know what is going on.” His green eyes narrow on me. “The girls have gotten close to her. My wife is worried. They don’t want you hurting her.”
David puts down his phone and folds his arms to listen. His sanctimonious attitude makes me want to punch him. I guess he’s forgotten when I had to pick him off the floor because he was so high he was sleeping in his own piss.
“You’re kidding me.” I look at them both.
Edge is pacing in the corner on the phone, but it’s only a matter of time before he finds out. Frankly, I’m surprised no one has told him yet.
“Dolly. Hold on.” Edge brings the phone down from his ear. “What’s going on?”
His eyes swing around the room. “Babe, I have to go. I’ll tell you later.”
He pockets his phone and reaches for a cigarette. Taking a deep drag, he smiles, literally beams at me, reminding me of fucking Eve.
“What’s her name?”
“She’s a nobody,” I grumble. A pang of guilt and tightening in my chest make me add, “She’s a friend I’m helping out.”
David snorts and looks over at Edge. “Yep, she’s a friend of Axel’s. Who happens to be exquisite. And because Axel is so friendly, he carried her off the stage at the Pussycat. Moved her into his room and made my wife rearrange her waitstaff so Antoinette can work at the diner instead of stripping.” David stretches out his long legs and smirks at me.
“Wait.” Edge isn’t even trying to hide his aggravation as he grits out, “She’s a stripper?”
“Actually no. She’s a ballerina in need of cash,” David says. “Anyway, doesn’t matter because she never got to strip. Axel stormed the stage before any of us got to see anything.” He blows smoke rings at the ceiling.
“Fuck you, David. You can’t be serious.”
He arches a brow at me and grins at Edge who doesn’t seem able to contain himself.
“I can’t believe it. How? Why am I only now hearing about this?”
“Okay. We need to focus on club shit, not the fact that Axel has an old lady.” Blade holds up his hands.
“The fuck?” I look at him.
“Let’s get our shit together. We’re having Church tomorrow before the party. It will be short. My wife is excited to have Dolly back, and I think we all could let off some steam.” He takes a swig of Jack and sets the bottle down with a thud.
“Which brings me to Dolly. Is she okay for tomorrow?”
“She’s better now that we’ve been back a few days. We saw her OB yesterday. The baby is good. I’m not kidding—as soon as that plane took off, she was sick the entire time. Longest two weeks of my life.” He rubs the back of his neck.
If he didn’t look so beat up about it, I’d remind him I told them to stay home. But everything happens for a reason and I’m too tired to get into it today.
“I’m out.” I don’t wait to hear anything else. Blade’s getting drunk and I’m ready to put a fist in either David’s or Edge’s face. I’m about to get on my bike when my fucking phone rings.
“What?” I snarl.
“I’m at the Pussycat,” Ox’s voice blasts into my ear. Music plays loud in the background. “Hold on, let me go into the office.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to yell that he should have waited until he was in the office to call me but whatever.
“Okay, so I…” The music fades as he comes in clear.
“Everything okay?” I ask, interrupting him. It’s a dick move, but I’m already on my bike and ready to roll.
Ox laughs. “Axel, it’s good to have you back. I’ll be quick since you seem like you’re busy.”
“What?” I growl, putting the key in my bike.
“Blade had Snipe run a background check on Antoinette, and Snipe says he can’t get ahold of you.” I stop and sit up, my body instantly on alert.
I had thought about doing this early on. Because I know she has secrets, but pulling the trigger and having Snipe do it seemed to make her special.
“I’ve been busy dealing with the security break-in.”
“Call Snipe.
”
I hang up and stare at my phone. Antoinette is the worst liar, which is another reason I haven’t dug into her past. It would have been nice had Blade told me he was doing this, but as I only now got back into town, I’ll let it slide. My finger hovers over Snipe’s number while dread slithers down my neck landing in the pit of my stomach. Trying my best to ignore it, I push call.
“Axel,” Snipe answers almost immediately.
“What did Blade ask you to find out?”
He’s silent then responds, “He said find out the basics, and the rest is up to you.”
“Run everything on her. Find out her entire past—more than the basics.” I should have done this earlier. Had it been anyone but Antoinette, I would have run one without thinking twice. The fact that I didn’t is a red flag in itself and Blade knows it.
“Will do, boss.”
Blade is smart and being safe. She has a past, and even though my gut says all the stuff that’s been happening has nothing to do with her, it was irresponsible of me not to have her checked out.
She’s new, and she’s hiding something. I need this for my own peace of mind.
I start up my bike and sit for a second in the parking lot, watching the valet roll out his sign. Does a ballerina seriously walk off the street and into a strip club? I guess we’ll find out. I mean, I didn’t believe she was a virgin either.
It takes me thirty minutes to get from the Dolly to Out Takes Diner and my phone has already vibrated. Backing into a spot, I pull out my phone knowing it’s Snipe with the information.
For a second, I wait, letting myself still have that moment of not knowing. I’m completely invading her privacy, and what I find could change everything.
As much as I tell myself she means nothing…
It’s a lie.
I want her and haven’t been able to stop wanting her. I like that she’s mine and mean that in every sense. She wants to be mine and she wants me to take care of her. But I can’t trust her. I’m not that kind of man and don’t live that kind of life.
I take out my cigarettes and light one up. “What you got, man?”
He sighs. Instantly I know it’s bad. The sweat on my neck drips down my back as I wait for her secrets. I take a deep drag, needing it to calm me.
“Let’s hear it.”
“All right, Antoinette Diana Van Doran, born the twenty-ninth of August in 2001 in Manhattan, New York. Her father was Matthew Donald Van Doran and mother Gabriella Diana Van Doran. The father owned several businesses and came from old money. Antoinette was homeschooled with private tutors as she was in dance almost from the age of three and was accepted into the New York City Ballet at age fourteen.”
“So, she’s nineteen?”
“Yes, almost twenty.” He takes a deep breath and exhales. “So, at age sixteen, she found both parents dead from gunshot wounds. The father was bankrupt and was being sued for numerous Ponzi schemes. Apparently he shot his wife in the head and then himself while she was at rehearsal.”
“Antoinette found them?”
“Yes.”
As I look at the sky, the sun is setting. All the pieces start to fall into place. “Where did she go? Who took her in?”
He clears his voice. “An aunt, the mother’s sister. Danielle Marie Meier lives in Northern California. Divorced and has two kids of her own. She’s a middle school math teacher. They seem to not communicate. Antoinette left as soon as she graduated high school and as far as I can tell, she never went back.
“What about dance, the ballet?” It comes out harsh.
“No more ballet. From what I’m seeing, Antoinette was in debt to her father’s business partners. And the aunt lives paycheck to paycheck.”
“These business partners expected a kid to pay her father’s debt?” Anger goes through me. She has no one. No wonder she likes to feel secure—she’s never had it. I can’t even imagine what she went through.
“No, but the lawyers and partners liquidated all of the properties, the father’s and mother’s life insurance policies, everything. She inherited nothing. The dad had a brother, but it seems he was not close and the family completely distanced themselves. Didn’t want any more of a scandal.”
I get off my bike. “Christ.” I rub the back of my neck. “So, no one is after her? She’s safe?”
“Yes. No one wants her or seems interested in her whereabouts.”
There’s silence. As bad as that sounds, it’s true. Only me. I want her. I’m interested in everything she does. Fuck, I wanted her from the moment I saw her.
“You want me to dig more?”
“Yeah. Find out everything about the dad, his partners, his enemies, everything. And if I need to kill any of them.”
“On it.”
The line goes dead as I make my way toward the diner. I see her platinum blond hair through the window. She’s talking to Cindy and they’re both laughing. I stop and let myself watch her.
Her hair is down as if she knows I’m coming for her and I almost want to rub my heart. Staying away did nothing. All I want to do is storm in and carry her out. Take her home and fuck her all night. Tell her that I have her, want her.
As if she can feel me, she turns and our eyes meet. Her red lips open then shut as she turns back to Cindy who looks around her. So instead of her beautiful violet eyes, I’m now met with angry blue ones.
Whatever, I’m back. And I’m not leaving anytime soon.
Cindy is bitter over Ryder and life in general. Antoinette has every reason to be bitter, broken even. But she’s not. She still has a glow, an innocence, and her vulnerability radiates from inside her.
I grab the door handle and pull it open, knowing full well I’ve been lying to myself.
She means way more than I want to say. And I also know I have no intention of letting her go. She’s mine and only mine.
Untouched.
Smiling, I enter the diner, and all the club shit magically becomes like an annoying drizzle. I’m here for one thing only. She looks at me, her chest rising and falling as if she can barely breathe. It’s all right there on her face. She knows who she belongs to.
Good girl.
ANTOINETTE
Why? Why do I have a connection with this man? It almost makes me want to stomp my foot. None of this can be normal. How is it that I know when he’s near? It’s as though he has special powers or something.
“Just pull yourself together. He’s coming and you look obvious.” Cindy peeks around me.
“What’s he doing here?” I hiss as I take in some air.
“I guess he’s back. See this is what they do—”
“What who does?” Charlie walks out of the kitchen. Her hair is pulled up and looks absolutely gorgeous in that not-even-trying way.
“Shh.” Cindy pinches her.
“Jesus, what is wrong with you? Stop it… Oh hey, Axel.” She shakes her head at Cindy.
“You ready?” He ignores them, his eyes completely on me. He is so freakin’ hot. I’ve never seen any man look like him.
Perfection.
He’s better than any guy in a magazine. Truly the only man who comes close is Rhys Granger. But that’s not fair to Granger because Axel has the bad boy thing going on. Danger seems to be a major turn-on for me.
My heart is racing, and I want to jump up, throw my arms around his neck, and tell him I missed him. Which is stupid, considering he could be picking me up to drop me off again.
“Hey, Axel. Nice of you to show up again.” Cindy leans over the counter, her huge breasts nearly spilling out of her tiny shirt.
“Cindy.” But his eyes are on me. They caress me as he reaches out to move a lock of hair off my face. “You got your hair cut.”
“Doug did it.” As his fingers stroke my hair, I almost want to nuzzle into his hand.
“You look beautiful.” His hand falls to my cheek. I inhale his scent. I missed it, missed him. I want to bury myself in his neck and breathe him in. It’s crazy, but his scent ca
lms me.
“Holy. Fuck.” Cindy stares with her mouth open.
“Charlie?” she squeals, making Axel drop his hand and frown at her.
Charlie clears her throat. “You can go, Antoinette. I’ll see you tomorrow at the party.”
She arches a challenging eyebrow at Axel. This has been a huge part of today’s discussion: Eve’s welcome home pool party for Edge and Dolly. But Cindy refuses to go because of Ryder. And I’m not even sure of anything concerning Axel and me or if I’m even going.
“You hungry?” My eyes go back to his and I’m done.
“I just ate.”
He nods. His hair, which I have to fight not to run my fingers through, is windblown and curling at the sides. His very presence takes over the room.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.” I grab my bag from under the counter. It’s new. Eve stopped by the other day saying it was a gift from her and Doug.
“New bag?” His eyes rake over my body as I sling it over my shoulder.
“Eve and Doug gave it to her,” Cindy chimes in before I can even respond. Axel cocks his head at her but says nothing as he reaches for my hand lacing our fingers.
Again, he arches a dark brow at Cindy and looks at Charlie. “That was nice of them.” He grins.
“It was. It really was,” she says, her boobs bouncing as she becomes animated. “So… I mean we”—she points to herself and Charlie—“we will see you both tomorrow at the party.”
Still grinning, Axel shakes his head. “Stand down, Cindy. Big bad Axel’s back. And
Antoinette is all mine.” He laughs as he pulls me toward the door.
“Whatever, Axel. I’m watching you,” she yells at our backs.
I can’t help but laugh. Cindy is fantastic. She’s like a walking Barbie doll trying to tell Axel off.
The night air hits me and it’s way warmer outside than it is in the diner.
“I’m glad you like her,” he says as we stop at his bike and he puts the helmet on me.
“She’s wonderful,” I yell.
He grins, and combined with the incredible sunset behind him, he looks like a movie star.
Ignite (The Disciples Book 4) Page 16
